Ministerial Ordinance to Provide for Criteria Pursuant to Article 7, Paragraph 1 (2) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act

The applicant must fall under one of the following categories and must receive no less salary than a Japanese national would receive for comparable work.

1. A person with at least 10 years' experience in preparing cuisine or producing foods that originated overseas and is foreign to Japan (including the period of time spent studying at educational institutions in a foreign country while majoring in the skills concerned) who is to engage in a job requiring such skills (excluding the foreign nationals cited in Item 9).

2. A person with at least 10 years' experience in architecture or civil engineering characteristic to foreign countries (including the period of time spent studying at educational institutions in a foreign country while majoring in the skills concerned) who is to engage in a job requiring such skills. (If the person concerned is to engage in a job under the guidance of a person who has at least 10 years' experience, experience of 5 years will be accepted in lieu of 10 years.)

3. A person with at least 10 years' experience in the manufacture or repair of products special to foreign countries (including the period of time spent studying at educational institutions in a foreign country while majoring in the skills concerned) who is to engage in a job requiring such skills.

4. A person with at least 10 years' experience in the processing of gems, precious stones or fur (including the period of time spent studying at educational institutions in a foreign country while majoring in the skills concerned) who is to engage in a job requiring such skills.

5. A person with at least 10 years' experience in training animals (including the period of time spent studying at educational institutions in a foreign country while majoring in the skills concerned) who is to engage in a job requiring such skills.

6. A person with at least 10 years' experience in seabed digging for oil exploration or digging for development of terrestrial heat or a study of the seabed for minerals exploration (including the period of time spent studying at educational institutions in a foreign country while majoring in the skills concerned) who is to engage in a job requiring such skills.

7. A person with at least 1,000 hours' experience in piloting an aircraft who is to engage in a job as a pilot of an aircraft used for air transport provided for by Article 2, Paragraph 17 of the Aviation Act (Law No. 231 of 1947).

8. A person with at least 3 years' experience in instructing sport (including the period of time spent studying at educational institutions in a foreign country while majoring in the skills concerned and engaging in the sport with remuneration) who is to engage in a job requiring such skills or a person who has competed in an international event such as the Olympics or World Championships and is to engage in a job requiring such skills concerning instruction in the sport.

9. A person with at least 5 years' experience in assessing, evaluating, and maintaining the quality of wine, and providing wine (hereinafter referred to as "wine assessment") (including the period of time spent studying at educational institutions in a foreign country while majoring in the skills concerned) who falls under one of the following categories and is to engage in a job requiring such skills.
a. A person who has achieved excellence in a contest concerning skills for wine assessment held on an international scale (hereinafter referred to as "international sommelier contest").
b. A person who has entered an international sommelier contest (limited to those that restrict the number of contestants to one per country).
c. A person who has a qualification for skills concerning wine assessment that is certified by a national or local government (including a foreign government), or a public or private organization equivalent thereto and is designated by the Minister of Justice in the Official Gazette.

1. The applicant must fall under one of the following categories.
a. The applicant must study at a college or an equivalent educational institution, a specialized course of study at an advanced vocational school (senshugakkou), an educational institution specializing in preparing persons who have completed 12 years of education at schools in foreign countries to enter a Japanese college, or a college of technology (koutousenmongakkou), excluding cases where the applicant is to study solely at a night school or through correspondence courses.
b. The applicant must enter a college in Japan and study solely at a night school for a course offered by a graduate school which holds classes at the college concerned at night (limited to cases where the college concerned has an adequate system to manage the attendance of foreign nationals who study at the graduate school and their compliance with the provisions of Article 19, Paragraph 1 of the Act).
2. The applicant must have sufficient assets, a scholarship or other means of support to meet his expenses while in Japan, unless someone else is to pay the applicant's expenses.

3. In cases where the applicant is to attend courses as a research student or auditor who is to study solely by auditing, he must be enrolled as such through some form of examination by the authorities of the educational institution concerned and must attend at least 10 hours a week.

4. In cases where the applicant is to enroll in a specialized course of study at an advanced vocational school (senshyugakkou) (excluding study solely of the Japanese language), the following requirements are to be fulfilled.
a. The applicant must have studied the Japanese language for at least 6 months at one of the Japanese language institutions designated by the Minister of Justice in the Official Gazette, have proved through some form of examination that he has the ability to sufficiently understand the Japanese language to pursue a course of study at an advanced vocational school, or have studied for at least 1 year at one of the schools (excluding kindergartens) provided for by the provision of Article 1 of the Schools Act (Law No. 26 of 1947).
b. The advanced vocational school concerned must have a full-time foreign student adviser assisting foreign students with living in Japan.

5. In cases where the applicant is to study solely the Japanese language in a specialized course of study at an advanced vocational school, the school concerned must be one of the Japanese language institutions designated by the Minister of Justice in the Official Gazette.

6. In cases where the applicant is to study at an educational institution specializing in preparing persons who have completed 12 years of education at schools in foreign countries to enter a Japanese college, the educational institution concerned must be one designated as such by the Minister of Justice in the Official Gazette.

1. The applicant must study at an upper secondary school (including the latter course of a secondary educational school (chutoukyouikugakkou); hereinafter in this section "high school" is to include "the latter course of a secondary educational school"), its equivalent for the blind or other disabled persons, a higher or general course of study at an advanced vocational school (senshyugakkou) or a vocational school (kakushugakkou) or any other educational institution equivalent to a vocational school in its facilities and curriculum, excluding cases where the applicant studies only at a night school or through correspondence courses.

2. The applicant must have sufficient assets, a scholarship, or other means of support to meet his expenses while in Japan, unless someone else is to pay the applicant's expenses.

3. In cases where the applicant is to study at an upper secondary school, he must be at the age of 20 years or under and must have studied the Japanese language for at least 1 year at an educational institution, unless he is accepted for study through a student exchange program or other equivalent international exchange program of the national government, a local government, independent administrative institution, educational foundation or non-profit foundation.

4. In cases where the applicant is to study at a higher or general course of study at an advanced vocational school, or at a vocational school (excluding study solely of the Japanese language), the following conditions are to be fulfilled, except in cases where the applicant is to engage in study at an educational institution that has been established for enrollment of a considerable number of foreign nationals from foreign countries and provides primary or secondary education in a foreign language, in which case the condition provided in a) need not be fulfilled.
a. The applicant must have studied the Japanese language for at least 6 months at one of the Japanese language institutions designated by the Minister of Justice in the Official Gazette, have proved through some form of examination that he has the ability to sufficiently understand the Japanese language to pursue a course of study at an advanced vocational school or other vocational school or have studied for at least 1 year at one of the schools (excluding kindergartens) provided for by the provisions of Article 1 of the Schools Act (Law No. 26 of 1947).
b. The advanced vocational school or the vocational school concerned must have a full-time adviser assisting foreign students with living in Japan.

5. In cases where the applicant is to study at an educational institution equivalent to a vocational school in its facilities and curriculum (excluding study solely of the Japanese language), the institution concerned must be designated as such by the Minister of Justice in the Official Gazette.

6. In cases where the applicant is to study solely the Japanese language in a higher or general course of study at an advanced vocational school, at a vocational school, or at an educational institution equivalent to a vocational school in its facilities and curriculum, the educational institution concerned must be one of the Japanese language institutions designated by the Minister of Justice in the Official Gazette.

1. The technology, skills and/or knowledge that the applicant is to obtain in Japan must not be technology, skills and/or knowledge that could be obtained mostly through the repetition of simple work.

2. The applicant must be at least 18 years of age and is expected to engage in a job requiring the technology, skills and/or knowledge obtained in Japan after returning to his country of nationality or habitual residence.

3. It must be impossible or difficult for the applicant to obtain the desired technology, skills and/or knowledge in the country where he resides.

4. The proposed training must be conducted under the guidance of a person who is a full-time employee of the public or private organization accepting the trainee concerned (hereinafter referred to as the "accepting organization") and who has at least 5 years' experience in the technology, skills and/or knowledge concerned.

5. In cases where the training program scheduled by the accepting organization includes on-the-job training (training intended to impart the technology, skills and/or knowledge through actual performance of goods production or services provision with remuneration), the following conditions are to be fulfilled, unless the applicant participates in the training program provided in 6-2. However, these conditions need not be fulfilled in cases where the applicant is invited by the national government, a local government or an independent administrative institution, or in cases where he falls under the cases designated by the Minister of Justice in the Official Gazette.
a. Housing for trainees must be secured (including cases where a mediating organization concerned in the proposed training is securing the housing).
b. The training facility must be insured.
c. The accepting organization must be inviting trainees at a ratio of 1/20 trainees or less, including the applicant, to each full-time employee.
d. The accepting organization must have an adviser to assist trainees with living in Japan.
e. Measures to cope with the death, accident or sickness of trainees during the training such as private insurance or other means (excluding the Workers' Accident Compensation Insurance) must be provided (including cases where a mediating organization concerned in the proposed training is taking such measures).
f. Safety and sanitation measures in respect to the training facilities must be secured in accordance with the provisions of the Labor Safety and Sanitation Act (Law No. 57 of 1972).

6. In cases where the training program scheduled by the accepting organization includes on-the-job training, the applicant must be a full-time employee of one of the following organizations and be dispatched from it, unless the applicant participates in the training program provided in the following item. However, this requirement need not be fulfilled in cases where the applicant is accepted for the training of overseas staff who will be working at that organization's foreign joint venture or local subsidiary, subject to the condition that the establishment of a joint venture or subsidiary has been recognized by the competent authorities, in cases where the applicant is invited by the national government, a local government or an independent administrative institution, or in cases where the applicant falls under the cases designated by the Minister of Justice in the Official Gazette.
a. The national government, local government or public corporation
b. Joint ventures or affiliated companies of the accepting organization
c. Organizations which have conducted business transactions with the accepting organization for at least 1 year or with a total of at least 1 billion yen within 1 year.

6-2 In cases where the applicant is to participate in the training program designated by the Minister of Justice in the Official Gazette, the following conditions are to be fulfilled.
a. The accepting organization must fall under all of the conditions provided for in a), b), and d) to f) of Item 5.
b. The number of trainees being accepted by the accepting organization, including the applicant, is not to exceed the total number of full-time employees at the organization, and is to be within the number of trainees cited in the right-hand column of the following table according to the relevant total number cited in the left-hand column of the said table. However, in cases where the accepting organization engages in agriculture, the number of trainees being accepted by the organization is not to exceed two, including the applicant.

Total No. of Full-time Employees at the Accepting Organization	Number of Trainees
Over 301	Within 1/20 of the total number of full-time employees
201 to 300	15
101 to 200	10
51 to 100	6
Up to 50	3

7. In cases where the applicant is to participate in on-the-job training, the period for that on-the-job training must be two thirds of the total training program or less (in cases where there are two or more accepting organizations, the time spent in each training program separately must be added together).

8. The accepting organization, the operator, the manager, the person supervising the training and the adviser of the accepting organization must not have committed misconduct in the training of foreign nationals in the past 3 years (including cases where the trainee invited under a training program that does not include on-the-job training has been made to participate in on-the-job training).

9. In cases where an organization, other than the Japanese Government, a local government or an independent administrative institution, is mediating the training, the organization concerned must not be a profit-making organization. Furthermore, the concerned organization, the operator or the full-time employees must not have committed misconduct relating to the training of foreign nationals in the past 3 years.

The applicant must be a dependent of a person residing in Japan with a status of residence given in Annexed Table I (1) or (2) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act or with the status of residence of "Cultural Activities" or "College Student".

The following conditions are to be fulfilled, except in cases where the applicant has passed the examination on information processing skills that is designated by the Minister of Justice in the Official Gazette or has obtained the qualification on information processing skills that is designated by the Minister of Justice in the Official Gazette, in which case the condition provided in Item 1 need not be fulfilled.

1. The applicant must have graduated from or completed a course at a college or acquired equivalent education majoring in a subject relevant to the skills and/or knowledge necessary for performing the job concerned, or the applicant must have at least 10 years' experience (including the period of time spent studying the relevant skills and/or knowledge at a college, college of technology (koutousenmongakkou), upper secondary school, the latter course of a secondary educational school (chutoukyouikugakkou) or during a specialized course of study at an advanced vocational school (senshugakkou)).

2. The applicant must receive no less salary than a Japanese national would receive for comparable work.